Paid Blog Promotion: Facebook Outperforms LinkedIn & Twitter

I always had a natural interest for technology. As a teenager I was even developing my own games on a MSX computer in Basic. Later on during my study also generated lines of code in Pascal and assembler. Although it never became my passion today this technical backgrounds helps me better understand what is going on in tersm of technology. The marketing profession today is very much a technology game where understanding of technology in my opinion is key to perform. So as a marketing director I still like to dive into the details whether it is Google Analytics or advertising platforms offered by Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Writing blogs helps to maintain these skills running my own personal environment. Having a hosting provider, creating blogs in WordPress and expanding with plug-ins or connecting with other platforms remains myself attached to technological market developments.

Every time I publish a blog I copy the blog in the native LinkedIn publishing environment.

Paid promotion

After finishing my most recent blog last week I decided to support its exposure with some paid campaigns. It was already in the back of my mind for a while to run campaigns through my three most used social networks Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Every time I publish a blog I copy the blog in the native LinkedIn publishing environment. Experience has shown that by doing that the LinkedIn algorithm can create quite some traction without doing anything other than having good content. Normally my blogs reach hundreds of readers but sometimes thousands. It seems that if the blog within a certain period of time is actively engaged the platforms rewards it with even more exposure.

I decided to spend about USD50 per network on paid promotion. It is already quite an experience to create ads in all three different platforms. Each social network has its own way to create an ad and to determine the target audience. Here you can see the differences between the platforms where I consider Facebook as the most advanced. Automatically ads for my blog were also published in the Instagram network although I was not expecting that much from it. Here you can see the differences between the platforms where I consider Facebook as the most advanced.I decided to promote the blog item published in the native LinkedIn environment rather than my own blog URL. Thinking behind it was that maybe the LinkedIn algorithm would reward additional visitors with increased exposure. Trade off is that quality of traffic I was not able to measure since my Google Analytics is measuring my own WordPress blog.

LinkedIn console

FaceBook console

Twitter console

Twitter ads, Facebook ads and LinkedIn campaign results

In all three networks I was able to set a daily budget based on a cost per mille to reach a certain number of eyeballs. I was mainly focussing on audiences in the profession of sales and marketing. The level of detail you are able to configure is amazing in all three networks. All useful tools to determine the size of the audience including tips and tricks how to generate the highest traction. By doing all of this you again realize the complexity of running online campaigns.By doing all of this you again realize the complexity of running multiple campaigns, on multiple networks, in multiple countries for the different phases in our customer buying journey having a variety of assets available from text ads to videos. Each and every network has its own management console and specifications of all networks slightly differ and thus creates additional work. That online marketing became an art is once again confirmed.

I ran the campaigns for about 4-5 days and tried to configure the campaigns specifics pretty general without too much customization. Overall conclusion: Facebook outperforms both networks. LinkedIn didn’t generate even one click! The CTR results are listed below:

Facebook: click through rate of 1.3%

Twitter: click through rate of 0,5%

LinkedIn: click through rate of 0%

Off course, there are many elements that determine the CTR performance where I also challenge our own online marketing teams on. What is the quality of the audience that you are able to reach? What is the quality of the message or title that you put into the advert? Even if you have a high CTR, what is the quality of the traffic that has been generated? I would rather have a low CTR with a low bounce % than the other way around. So keep in mind that this measurement is not so much advanced.

Reach results:

Facebook: reach of 13,896 (persons who have seen the ad at least once)

Twitter: reach of 27,987

LinkedIn: reach of 19,010

In total the number of views on LinkedIn today is at 660. I don’t know whether generating traffic from other platforms has a negative impact on the LinkedIn algorithm. It might result into negative scores, I don’t know. The number of views on my own WordPress blog today are at 189.

CPC are as follows:

Facebook: cost per click of USD 0.23

Twitter: cost per click of USD 0.39

LinkedIn: no clicks…

In a next test I might redirect to my own blog in order to measure the quality of traffic that has been generated. At the end that’s what counts at the end delivering engaged readers who might come back and start to follow. Will keep you posted!

Hi, my name is Mark Appel (46), family man, modern marketing professional and amateur triathlete. Almost active for 25 years in the IT industry. Worked for companies like Apple, 3Com, Peregrine, Twinfield and currently as a global marketing director for Exact Software. I like to write about my experiences and views on the cloud, marketing and the IT industry in general. All posts are on my personal behalf.